Frieda Strachan Studio

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Los Angeles, CA
Frieda Strachan Studio

ARTIST / MAKER / DESIGNER

Scottish artist living and creating in Los Angeles

08/13/2026

Made an indigo dye pot, dunked my clothes in, and now I match the sky.

This was originally beige lounge wear from asos (my bad) that I bought during the covid lockdown in 2020. I loved it, but hated the colour and Paul offered to dye it at SUAY SEW SHOP the first time I visited him. I chose a lilac dye at their original Frogtown location. It's been almost 5 years since I dyed it now, and it felt like time for another revamp, but I still wanted to keep some of the Suay colour too. I think it looks great.

I love nature, I love dyeing and learning new things - and having dood not mind when I make a mess in our garden. More to come - I obviously used to indigo to colour some random fabric pieces from Remainders Creative Reuse too!

08/05/2026

Got a big pile of grey and olive fabric pieces to make more curtains and coverings with, and have dried out some marigolds to make dye too. But then, of COURSE I screwed up my back somehow (truly no idea, but it's BAD) and I haven't been able to make anything with them and now my sister arrives on Thursday. Sigh. Life, eh?

I ran out of the vintage kimono silk that I somehow acquired for $30 at a flea market, and unless something vintage or second hand crosses my path like that again, it'll be plant textiles from remainders for the foreseeable!

If you know much about planting a dye garden, let me and dood know because he built the raised bed you can see in the background and need ideas.

08/01/2026

Life lately has been good, spent with folk I love, and I'm really trying to make my house in Pasadena feel like a home. Family and friends have visited, and on Thursday my best friend Kiki (Christine, my sister) arrives. How lucky I am!

I've filled as much of my time with the loves of my life as I can. Art rules, animals rule, my family rules, my friends rule, and my new haircut rules. You likely rule if you made it here - thank you ❤️

07/18/2026

Mam and Doug came to LA with a week's notice and just left the city today. A really happy whirlwind where I tried to fit as much STUFF as I could into the two weeks the were here. And of COURSE that included showing Doug how to dye using onion skins.

We went to the PCC flea together and I bought this table cloth (I think that's what it is?) and decided to dye it as a wee bed or sofa cover. It's now the perfect olive green. Here are also a couple of photos from all over the place. I never thought Doug would ever visit me n Paul, so I'm overwhelmed the two of them were here. Off to get real sad for a while, but then I'll remember that my sister, Christine, gets here in 3 weeks. I'm very lucky this Summer!

The song isn't actually a comment on them, we just love it! 😅

07/12/2026

MINDFREEEEEAK

07/01/2026

Hand dyed thrifted silks, lace and cotton napkins that I turned into Japanese boro style curtains for my bedroom.
Yellow - marigolds from fields.of.milkweed
Browns - cutch
Grey - oak fall with iron
Pink - madder root

06/10/2026

Having so much fun in my back yard with natural dye.

These will eventually be pieced together to make some patchwork drapes for our bedroom and spare room, but for now, I'm gonna leave them on the washing line ~as long as possible~ so I can enjoy them blowing in the wind.

The grey is Oak Gall, and the orange and yellow is madder root. Two of these batches were just dunked in cold, leftover dye baths while I went to work, and I love how it still created some cool patterns.

06/08/2026

Had the best weekend with , and Joey making curtains for her wee garden bothy!

Joey was creative director AND maker, picking the dye colours, placement and cropping of pieces before sewing it all together. Love love loved this curtain collab! Joey's vision was curtains that were dyed to look like "ripples you get at the bottom of a pool" (unreal) and Paul helped with a tying technique to achieve that ❤️ can you believe?

Joey picked oak gall (+iron powder) from to dye with and we headed to the kitchen to make our mordant and dye baths. We tied all the pieces after mordant bathing them, then dunked them into the yellow oak gall until adding iron to make everything black...
..but it didn't work! Or so we thought! Bee rinsed one with cold water, and as a scientist (yes, really, and her tie technique? Say less.) decided we do one control bath, and one with cold water. We split the goods and decided to reconvene later. Later, as my bath cooled, the dye took and we all did the reveal over FaceTime. Success!

On Sunday we met at my studio and cut the pieces to be used and Joey did all the sewing - super straight for her first go on a sewing machine! Curtains - DONE!

Even though *ahem* my piece never made the final cut... Kids rule, and no one can tell me otherwise.
PS Hamish's face at the end!

05/14/2026

Ok. So the peg loom rug didn't look right in our wee hallway (and the door caught on it because it's so chunky) time for a NEW PLAN!
#2 on my homemaker agenda was originally supposed to be some tufted bench cushions for our dining table - that's now going to be project #3. I still need to get this hallways adorned. It's Project Mak a Hoose a Hame after all.

In 2020/21 I started making tufted drip rugs (if you bought one, PLEASE show me where it lives now), and last year I made a few that I didn't really do anything with. So in place of the rug that's had to move out of the hallway, I'm going to make a couple of drip rugs, like this neon one from last year, to sit in the hallway. I always worry about using wool in my tufting machine, especially since it's so expensive here... but I have a tonne, and I need to actually start using it!

Our hallways is long, but thin, and I'm thinking one by the bedroom door under a wall cabinet, and one dripping out from the hallway, under a door and into the spare room. Ambitious? Maybe. Mostly concerned I'll find all the piece of my tufting frame after moving studios

05/11/2026

Cannot believe no one needs a one of a kind neon, tufted, vintage church pew. It's surprisingly comfy.

Address

Los Angeles, CA
90031

Website

http://Friedastrachanstudio.com/

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